Raven paused very dramatically, something quite typical of his mischievous manner. Driven to major annoyance, Mina's eyes were ready to bulge out of her head over his teasing.

"What?!" she exclaimed, her hands on her hips. "Where were you? Because you were certainly positivilutely not at the police headquarters like you said!"

Raven threw his hands up defensively, feigning fear in order to be dramatic. "Hey whoa whoa, champ! Where did that come from? I was laying to see if you noticed anything different about the office!"

Mina stuck her head out to look around Raven. The first thing that caught her eyes was in the lounge area and their desks. It was the antique lamp and what adorned them. Gone were the beige lampshades fit for a middle aged lawyering firm. Rather--there were shiny white lampshades, bedecked with stars--and Mina had to do a double take--the kung-fu cartoon cat himself, Ninja Kitty!

"Oh my lawd, are those..." Mina gushed, having to swallow an excessive amount of saliva in her mouth.

Raven made an exaggerated pose, pretending he had twin katanas, and he held one behind his head. "The master of Catrate! Ninja Kitty--or at least that's what the label says.

"Oh my gosh!" Mina said, her eyes starrier than the lampshades even."Where did you get those Catwaii coverings?"

Raven chuckled. "A few blocks down from the Police Station at the Bargain Bin convince store. They were having a massive blowout sale! I kinda splurged on all kinds of goodies and knickknacks to make this place hip for the kiddos!"

Mina's eyes darted around the office, target locking in Ninja Kitty mugs, paper weights, curtains, lampshades and even what looked like a glass contain of Ninja Kitty fragrance.

"Wowie zowie!" Mina said, pointing at the glass case. "Is that?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"His purrrr-fume line!" Raven said grinning. "It smells like a fresh clean litter box. I got it in the merch sale. I don't have much use cat odor so I figured..."

"I'll take it!" Mina shouted, her fists balled up excitedly.

"But you don't know what the price is!" Mina snarked, but he was met with a hostile, feline like glare himself.

With a sharp inhale of air, Mina who was already beat red, lunged in Raven's face. "Listen buster. After what you put me through last night, you better give me that perfume."

"Well yeah," Raven said. "I was gonna ask you what kind of shenanigans you got up to last night... You didn't any of my concerned texts."

Like she was a punctured balloon, Mina sputtered in disbelief before she told Raven everything that happened that night. Everything from Bunting and Blind to the whispers of the mysterious Aura.

"Gee whiz, kid," Raven said, taking a step back. "I was really careless last night. Maybe I should have thought my plan through!"

"Uh huh!" Mina said, rolling her eyes heavily in frustration.

Raven spread his arms wide. "Plus, with your cartoon watching expertise, we could have made some better purchases!"

"Yesh..." Mina lisped, nodding. "And then I wouldn't have been jumped by a black market snailsman. If I came with you, I could have helped you pick out the whole Cat-o-logue!"

"Catalism at it's finest!" Raven grinned before bowing his head. "Listen kid, I'm sorry. Deeply. You may be an adult now, but I've mentored you before you were one and I feel very responsible for your safety!"

Mina saw sorrow well up in the man's eyes, lingering regret over how he treated her. Truthfully, she was still mad, but Raven was thinking about her in his own lackadaisical way. He just needed to be more mindful of himself and how he treated others.

At last, Mina spoke with resolution in her voice. "Apology accepted on one condition..."

Raven gulped. "What is it?"

Mina winked playfully and she performed a similar Ninja Kitty attack stance. "You will let Ninja Kitty be the official mascot of this office."

Raven sighed in relief. He presented her a pair of thumbs up and a sheepish grin "Sure thing, kid. Not sure how legal that is, but we're lawyers darnit. We'll find a loophole!"

Mina rested her sugar latte on her desk. "At least we can work on that today rather than..."

Raven leaned with both hands on her desk. "No way, champ. We gotta saddle up!"

"Why?" Mina asked, exasperated.

"Cuz we're going to the scene of the crime!" her mentor examined. "Where the stars burn out the brightest! Gollywood!"